In the Moment

Each Fourth of July weekend the family has usually gone to Ogden, Utah, for the big Hot Rockin' Fourth of July Festival thing that they have going on. The last two years the girls have gone without us and spent time with the family. This year was a little different. The girls were invited by Lois' niece Tracy (and their cousin) to go camping in the mountains afterward.

This has been one of the things that they have been dying to do for a very long time. I am anxious to hear the details of how the night was spent sleeping on the cold ground, slapping mosquitoes and using the facilities of the great outdoors for an outhouse. I have been somewhat reluctant to take them camping anywhere for this very same reason. It was just this year that Lois proposed the idea once again of maybe taking the girls on a camping trip. We had just spent a morning up Millcreek Canyon and the thought of spending time in a nice manicured campground didn't seem like a bad idea. And besides, I was once a child and I remember having that same desire to go run and frolic in the woods. At least if I get cold and tired and scared from the thought of catching West Nile Disease, then I can just curl up in the Toyota Forerunner (which is where I'd be sleeping anyways, I'm sure). 

I suppose I could handle this. Just because I'm almost 50 doesn't mean I should deny the girls this kind of opportunity. And there are no rules when camping. Just because the girls would be sleeping on the ground doesn't mean I have to.

Anyways, what I really wanted to say had nothing to do with camping. I just got sidetracked.

Lately Lois and I and the girls have just been taking things slow. We've kind of developed this free sense of adventure. Most often we have been taking a lot of short road trips and wandering around the valley taking lots of pictures. I'm going to have to find a place where I can download them because all my cards are starting to get full. We have also found a lot of cool things around the valley that we otherwise would be oblivious to. It's a lot like stopping to smell the roses.

Everything seems less important these days. We seem to take one day at a time. It is not always that easy because you still have to plan, but for now it seems to be working out between work and doctor appointments and time off. We are hoping to make it to Yellowstone again this year. That would be fun and I know the girls would love it. My only worry is that there's no cell phone reception where we go and that is not good when you are on a transplant waiting list. For the time being, we are living in the moment and things are good there.